Karl Weick On Why "Am I a Success or a Failure?" Is The Wrong Question

I've written about The University of Michigan's Karl Weick here several times before, for example here and here, as he is one of the most creative and thoughtful people I know. He, more so than anyone know, looks at the same things as everyone else, but sees something different. I was just reading a paper that he wrote on renewal this morning and came across this stunning set of sentences:

Roethlisberger argues that people who are preoccupied with
success ask the wrong question. They ask, “what is the secret of success” when
they should be asking, “what prevents me from learning here and now?” To be overly
preoccupied with the future is to be inattentive toward the present where
learning and growth take place. To walk around asking, “am I a success or a
failure” is a silly question in the sense that the closest you can come to
answer is to say, everyone is both a success and a failure.

As usual, Weick sees things another way, and teaches us something. One of the implications of this statement is that the most constructive ways to go through life is to keep focusing on what you learn and how you can get better in the future, rather than fretting or gloating over what you've done in the past (and seeing yourself as serving a life sentence as a winner or loser). Some twists of Weick's simple ideas are explored in Carol Dweck's compelling research in in Mindset.

P.S. The
source for this quote isWeick, Karl E. How Projects Lose Meaning: "The Dynamics of Renewal." in Renewing
Research Practiceby R. Stablein and P. Frost (Eds.). Stanford, CA:Stanford. 2004.

Comments

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"To walk around asking, 'am I a success or a failure' is a silly question in the sense that the closest you can come to answer is to say, everyone is both a success and a failure."

This statement is disingenuous. Some people are much more successful at achieving desired outcomes (desired by themselves and/or others) than other people are. Who actually believes success is binary? The argument is a straw man. One can sometimes rightly conclude based on available evidence that one is unsuccessful most of the time in some area, and this can mean it's time to shift to new activities. Worrying about where along the continuum one's output lies is not a fruitless nor meaningless pursuit. It does have implications for one's life. It can also make people neurotic. Knowing that it's not helpful to worry excessively, especially when it comes at the cost of current growth, isn't always enough to change one's behavior. It's nonetheless a good start.

I agree with the statement: "everyone is a success AND a failure". But there is a cultural difference between the US and Europe. In US, it's extremely common to measure success in money, due to the meritocracy. In Europe, it is common as well, but not as polite to talk about money. In Europe we measure success in other ways (who you know, your education and what schools you went to, where you have worked, your title and not least, the way you dress). In Europe, corporate executives always dress in suits, always. In California, they almost never do. In Europe, we judge people after how they dress. And we almost never ask: "What have I learned?"